Biographical Information

Cassandra has worked in marine science and public outreach for almost fifteen years. Her writing and research focuses on marine resource exploitation worldwide, from her local New England Rivers to the remote reaches of Antarctica. During her previous graduate work at Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, she studied life history of Antarctic toothfish, one of two species known as “Chilean sea bass.” The Ross Sea population she investigated supports the most remote fishery on Earth.

Cassandra has worked in the lab, underwater, and at sea and has presented her work at conferences and workshops both nationally and internationally, while publishing in peer-reviewed journals. She's toiled as a federal fisheries observer on New England groundfish boats and spent a number of years devoted to wilderness therapy and environmental education throughout the United States. Over the years, she has also worked in traditional ecological knowledge - from uncovering the details of the first documented dam protest in New England to investigating the precolonial cod fishery history.

To gain true expertise in communicating science to the public, Cassandra completed a Graduate Certificate in Science Communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2009. As an established science writer and multi-media producer, she published more than 100 articles and multi-media about marine science, the environment and human well-being in local, national and international outlets. Most recently, she's worked with the Last Ocean Project to produce media and support outreach to promote policy designed to protect ecologically important regions of the globe like the Ross Sea, Antarctica. She's also worked with the Antarctic Ocean Alliance and other non-profits writing policy reports identifying important areas for marine protection in the Antarctic and elsewhere.

Cassandra has now returned to school to pursue a PhD with Stanford University’s Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources. She has proposed to quantify and qualify the tipping points that led to historical conservation action. She plans to study the strategies of indigenous fishers, scholars who have studied the origins of conservation ethics, and bold political efforts like the Antarctic Treaty. She hopes to apply these political, scientific and cultural frameworks to the high seas and other ocean regions in urgent need of sustainable management.

Professional Experience

The Last Ocean
Project. Boulder,
CO & Christchurch, NZ. 2010 – 2012. News Director. Outreach about the Ross Sea, Antarctica, including assisting with The
Last Ocean documentary. Also working to develop and execute high
impact media in remote communities (e.g. Bahamas and Raja Ampat, Indonesia).
Further, writing, editing and multi-media production for a new online news site
dedicated to fisheries and oceans issues.

San Francisco
Exploratorium. 2008. Published field
reports from 2008 AMLR cruise for the San Francisco Exploratorium “Ice Stories”
program. Also covered the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research meeting in
Saint Petersburg, Russia in July 2008.

Moss Landing Marine
Laboratories. Moss Landing, CA. 2004
– 2008. Graduate Research Assistant on NSF grant, Collaborative Research:
Radiometric Age Validation of the Patagonian and Antarctic toothfishes (Dissostichus
eleginoides and D. mawsoni). Also, Research Technician on the California
Collaborative Fisheries Research Program, tagging fish in and out of marine
protected areas off the central California coast.

Publications

Ainley D and C
Brooks. In Press. Exploiting the
Southern Ocean: Rational Use or Reversion to Tragedy of the
Commons? In Exploring Antarctic Values. D. Liggett and A. Hemmings
(eds). University of Canterbury, Gateway Antarctica Special Publication Series.
Christchurch, New Zealand.